BHOC: UNCANNY X-MEN #125

Brevoort History of Comics

UNCANNY X-MEN was on a roll at this point in time, and while this latest issue was something of a transition story, moving events in the direction of resolving some long-percolating plotlines, it was still ultra-enjoyable. These days, this whole era is considered a classic period, but at the time, we just looked at it as just another comic book series that was coming out, albeit one that was pretty good. In particular, looking back at it, where UNCANNY X-MEN really excelled was in the interiority of its characters. For all of his occasional excesses, writer Chris Claremont imbued each one with an inner life and emotional struggles that were immediately relatable. They were drawn sharply but were still a lot more fleshed-out as human beings than pretty much any of their contemporaries. And it seemed like there was still an infinite amount to learn about them, their backstories expanded and were revealed slowly across a wide swath of storytelling. For all that the New X-Men had been a thing for about four years at this point, we had still only scratched the surface of learning who these people were.

Of course, the other key skill being brought to the table was the storytelling power and attractive imagery of artist John Byrne. John was really more than just an artist, he was absolutely a co-plotter, and the particular push-and-pull between his preferences and that of his partner Chris provided the dynamic that made the series so compelling in these early years. John was something of a super hero traditionalist; he liked certain things to be done certain ways, and he pushed for his perspective as each issue was being worked on. As these books were all being produced in the “Marvel Method” style of plot-artwork-scripting, that meant that John had a strong impact on what made it into the final stories and how much emphasis it was given. One of the growing frustrations between Chris and John at this point, though, was the fact that John would draw a certain scene one way and then would be flummoxed when Chris would write it in a completely different fashion and with a completely different point. To be honest, this was probably the closest approximation to the dynamic that went on between Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in their own collaborations, but it irritated Byrne steadily. Editor Roger Stern, a good friend of John’s, did his best to keep things at an equilibrium between the two creators.

As I mentioned at the start, this issue was dedicated to starting to resolve a number of running plot elements, and it opens on Muir Island, a mutant research facility run by Professor X’s old paramour Moira MacTaggart. Jean Grey has relocated there following the apparent demise of the X-Men several issues earlier (in a case of don’t-look-at-it-too-closely plotting, which both the X-Men and Jean believe the other to be dead, a bunch of characters have interacted with both during this time, and have never thought to mention the other. The whole scenario is absurd if considered for more than a split second.) Jean had been transformed into the Phoenix several months earlier, an enormous power-up. Since then, though, her power levels have fluctuated, and Moira is trying to get to the bottom of it all. Unbeknownst to Jean, however, she’s been stalked all throughout her trip to Scotland by the mysterious Jason Wyngarde, who can change his appearance and persona at will. And also unbeknownst to either Jean and Moira, they’re both being watched by the entity that consumed Angus MacWhirter some issues before–an entity that had escaped holding in Muir Island, where it was only referred to as Mutant X. That escape had been documented in a single panel some 21 issues earlier, so it was a dangler that fans had been wondering about ever since.

The X-Men, meanwhile, have made their way back to the X-Mansion, which they were surprised to find closed up and abandoned–believing the team dead, Professor X accompanied his lover Princess Lilandra Neramani back to her native Shi’ar Empire among the stars, and Phoenix, as previously discussed, had decamped to Scotland. Mind you, nobody has bothered to call Moira to ascertain the Professor’s whereabouts–they couldn’t have, or else this entire plotline would instantly collapse. Instead, they reopened the mansion and have been going about their training and living their lives, dealing with the grief of Jean’s passing. There’s also a page that gets dropped in here that was apparently entirely an innovation of Byrne’s, that ties in to the recent storyline focusing on the background of the Scarlet Witch over in AVENGERS:

BHOC: AVENGERS #186

According to reports, Chris wasn’t even aware that this sequence was coming when it showed up to be scripted along with the rest of the issue. That said, it was a memorable moment of cross-title coordination that readers from the era still remember fondly.

Anyway, getting back to Moira, her studies of Jean’s physiognomy have indicated that she likely still possesses the cosmic-level telekinetic powers that she once wielded after first becoming Phoenix, but that as a kind of self-defense mechanism, her mind has erected psychic circuit breakers designed to keep her power at a level that she can manage. But of late, something has begun to erode those breakers. Elsewhere, off in the Shi’ar Galaxy and at loose ends while Lilandra runs her Empire, Professor X accessed the records of the X-Men’s exploits among the stars on that earlier adventure and is floored to discover the full extent of what Phoenix was able to pull off. This sets off major alarm bells in Xavier, as he realizes that his student isn’t going to be able to cope with such ridiculous levels of power. (He arrogantly thinks, “I doubt even I could control such power!”, the sexist!) He resolves to race back to Earth to provide her with assistance. But it may be too late for such gestures , in that as Moira goes to tell Jean about what she’s discovered, she discovers that Mutant X has escaped confinement and sounds a priority alarm that brings Phoenix as well as other guests Banshee, Havok, Polaris and Madrox the Multiple Man running. But as Phoenix responds, she experiences another time-slip where she suddenly finds herself in the form of her ancestor from the days of the Revolutionary War–and it’s only a collision with the expiring form of Angus MacWhirter that snaps her out of it.

Back in the U.S, the Beast shows up to check in on the X-Mansion, which is meant to be deserted. (The X-Men believe that the Beast died in the same conflict that supposedly killed Jean, but they never bothered at any point to contact the Avengers and tell them about the Beast’s demise–because that would have also spoiled the game. You really have to excuse a lot of people behaving stupidly to make this entire exercise work.) Anyway, the Beast finds the security protocols deactivated and heads in, thinking there’s an intruder. He has a quick scuffle with Nightcrawler in the dark–Nighty thinks that the Beast is an intruder breaking in–before the lights go on and there’s a full-on reunion. What’s more, the Beast is able to tell the gobsmacked X-Men that Jean is also still alive and that she headed off to Muir Island. After a fast debriefing, Cyclops does the thing he should have done days ago and gives Muir Island a call.

And it’s good if unexpected timing, because Jean and one of Madrox’s duplicates have both gone missing along with Moira, and Havok, Polaris and Jamie are about to start an organized search for them. But then the phone rings, a transatlantic call, and Lorna picks it up. There’s a quick moment of surprise, and Polaris quickly fills the X-Men in on the situation on Muir Island. Then something steps out of the shadows and the line goes dead. To Be Continued! It was another entertaining outing for the group, albeit a bit less immediately electrifying than recent releases as the story was primarily concerned with moving dominos into place for the conflicts to come. But it was still a great-reading, great-looking comic book.

The issue’s letters page continued to also be written by Claremont and included a rundown of the recent coverage that the title had received in Canada following the introduction of Alpha Flight and the depiction of the current Canadian Prime Minister. Of particular note, the last letter and its response notes that there are at this moment 63 established mutants in the Marvel Universe in total–54 men and 9 women. Can you even imagine such low numbers of mutants at this point?

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22 thoughts on “BHOC: UNCANNY X-MEN #125”

    1. For any Magnetos out there the real Earth for the next several decades ( until 2083 ) will have a “quasi-moon”, an asteroid named 2025PN7 [ ABC NEWS – October 22, 2025 –Will Earth have 2 moons orbiting it? Astronomers explain the ‘quasi-moon’ –I did see a report this week on NBC NEWS online too ].

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    2. Jean Grey’s over the top line in X-Men#101( October 1976 ) when she renames herself Phoenix ( Hear me, X-Men! No longer am I the woman you knew! I AM FIRE AND LIFE INCARNATE! NOW AND FIREVER — — I AM PHOENIX! ) — if the Phoenix Force hadn’t been created as a way to bring her back a later a writer readying that would have. When Galactus turned Ben Grimm back into the Thing ( making bigger ( muscle wise not height ) and stronger FF#175 ( October 1976 ) ) he never said anything like that. How does she know she is FIRE and LIFE INCARNATE? Plus on the first page of this issue[ X-Men#125 ], had the Phoenix Force not been created she had to have been subconsciously making energy take that bird-like form ( Like Firebird clearly does ).

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    3. The Omega File, the tape Professor X saw that told how Phoenix saved the universe and only he panics not members of advance races that make up the Shi’ar Empire or Imperial Guard ( Assuming their Legion of Super Heroes counterparts are scientist too: Mentor/Brainiac-5, Impulse/Wildfire, Astra/Phantom Girl. Wasn’t the Pre-Crisis Superman super-smart too? ). They could have used them or Galactus or the Stranger or the we didn’t sign on to a suicide pact Watchers to syphon off enough of her power to make her less of a universe level threat. Chris could have made her telekinetic powers the equal of or almost the equal of Magneto ( whatever he could lift/move with his powers she could too, whatever his magnetic force fields could protect him from her telekinetic one can too ) or if he was going to make her Cosmic then Silver Surfer level ( not that she would need the X-Men at that point ) is what it should have been identified as and not open ended. The MCU’s Scarlet Witch ( Avengers: Endgame ) — what she was doing to Thanos is clearly what they meant for Jean to do.

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      1. That was after X-Men #120, because Alpha Flight are in it. 🙂

        Where else would there have been a lot of characters who someone might have considered to be mutants? I’m racking my brains now.

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    2. Let’s see ( Ones that were alive when that letter page appeared & identified as mutants ): Professor X, Cyclops, Marvel Girl/Phoenix, Angel, Ice Man, Beast, Magneto, Vanisher, Blob, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Toad, Mastermind, Sub-Mariner, Unus, Banshee, Polaris, Mesmero, Living Pharaoh/Living Monolith, Havok, Sunfire, Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Black Tom, Multiple Man, Nuklo, Namorita, Willie Evans, Franklin Richards, Mandrill, Nekra, Alpha the Ultimate Mutant, Mindworm, Burner, Shocker II, Lifter, Peeper, Slither,

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      1. Nice list! I’m thinking the letter-writer wouldn’t have counted Namorita, but was counting the seven female mutants as Phoenix, Polaris, Scarlet Witch, Storm, Nekra, Lorelei and Zaladane. The latter two were talked about as if they were mutants at the time, and the distinction with ‘mutates’ came later.

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  3. Yeah, I knew reading this there had to be a lot of suspension of disbelief that no one ever told either party the other was alive but the story beats were worth it. If a story carries me along without me realizing until after things like that, I call it a win. Too often it’s so egregious it pulls you out of the story when you get to the panel it’s in. Oh and this is the issue where Jean uses TK to do quick wardrobe changes as she spins, right? That’s one of my favorite Byrne panels ever.

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  4. Two X-Men reviews in one day! This is too good to be true! First off, we had Alan Stewart’s absolutely delightful review of X-Men #101 (X-Men #101 (October, 1976) | Attack of the 50 Year Old Comic Books). Now we’re treated to an issue when this series was scaling heights unimagined just a few years earlier. Even better – we have the opportunity to resume all the wonderful discussion of the infamous reveal that Magneto was “daddy” to the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver!

    There are so many amazing aspects of this remarkable issue that it’s hard to know where to focus, but I’m going to follow up on some of the discussions from Alan’s previous post regarding Phoenix. Based on previous interviews, I know she was intended to be essentially a “Thor” analogue for the X-Men. But as is pointed out in this issue, once Jean Grey stopped all existence from going “blink,” all of that went out the window, leaving our Uncanny Friends with a teammate who immediately made all of them superfluous.

    What would it have been like to be a fly on the wall – or phone line – to hear the conversations between Claremont and Byrne as they attempted to untwist this Gordian knot they had crafted with Jean Grey? I’m also wondering if either have an inkling yet how they intended to resolve that storyline.

    As for the upcoming Weapon X-Proteus story, for me, that also remains very much a high-water mark in a series that was on an incredible roll.

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    1. I like how on the Attack of the 50 Year Old Comic Books he compares the Tac-Tac-Tac of the Geiger counter because of Cosmic Rays to the one in X-Men#101, suggesting she could be a cosmic ray mutant mutate.

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      1. I wish they had gone with that and that someone had erased Byrne’s B’Dari scene. Phoenix Force has led to some of the most convoluted X-History and has stranded Jean off in space.

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      2. I reread what I wrote and was looking right at the Attack of the 50 Year Old Comic Book and yet I forgot to point out that he was comparing the Tac-Tac-Tac in X-Men#101 to the one in the FF’s origin in FF#1.

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      3. I remember catching that and guess I assumed it was how she powered up. Have I mentioned enough times I hate the Phoenix Force? X-Factor should have stuck with Dazzler as the weak female member.

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  5. John Byrne drew one on the very best depictions of the Beast. Whether inked by Terry in U❌🚹, or by Dan Green in “Avengers”, or, I think, by Klaus Janson (also in “Avengers”?).

    Ah, the days of 27-31 pages in a monthly issue of a comic book series.

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    1. I like Kerry Gammill [ marvel Team-Up#124 ( December 1982 )] and George Perez’s Beast too. Also like Kerry Gammill’s Captain America [ Marvel team-Up#128 ( April 1983 )][ Marvel Fanfare#31-32 ( March-May 1987 )] and his Thing [ Fantastic Four#266 ( May 1984 ) ].

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  6. “Physiognomy”? I think you mean physiology, unless Moira could determine something about Jean’s powers by studying her face.

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  7. Really good issue. I can’t imagine how exciting it must have been to be reading this run in real time. I mean, it’s definitely enjoyable reading the Claremont & Cockrum and Claremont & Byrne runs in collected editions, but obviously after all these years it’s pretty well known what happens in each storyline. There’s just no way to recapture the thrill of not know what was going to happen next and being genuinely surprised at what happened, and to see all of these characters grow 7 develop from one issue to the next.

    High-quality artwork on this one by the team of Byrne & Austin, of course. And I have to mention Glynis Wein’s coloring, particularly on that opening splash page.

    It’s surprising that Byrne isn’t given a co-plotting credit on this issue, especially since he had officially assumed that role a number of issues earlier and, as Steven Grant relates in his comment on Tom’s entry for Avengers #187, making such significant contributions to this issue as including that scene with Magneto without any involvement from Claremont.

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    1. My reading of it is that if Chris had delivered a written plot, he credited himself as writer, whether John added and changed things or not. If they worked out a plot over the phone and John drew from that, they got credited as co-plotters or storytellers or some such term.

      I didn’t know that back when I was reading the books — I just thought it was a nice way to say “We’re working together in synergy.” So when I wrote THE LEGEND OF WONDER WOMAN, I credited Trina Robbins in each issue as co-plotter, even though I was writing full scripts.

      So things go, sometimes. Anyway, I assume Chris wrote a plot on this one.

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  8. All that business about nobody making content with anything else and mentioning the X-Men (or Jean and Hank) were alive, to people who’d been told they were dead — or not contacting the Avengers to inform them of the Beast’s death, or not going off on a rage-hunt for Magneto for murdering their friends — was part of what had me furious at the book. It was truly bad plotting. And that it was resolved in such an off-handed manner annoyed me too.

    It was such a crisp-looking book, with sharply-written dialogue, great lettering — it was like the BMW of modern comic books; precision engineering. So it bothered me that underneath all that crisp surface there were these howling areas of dumb, dumb stuff.

    I expect they wouldn’t have bothered me as much if the surface was sloppy, too. But the surface was so slick I wanted it all to be as well-built.

    But it looked great, and was delivered with amazing confidence; I gotta give it that. And I learned a lot from it that I used in AVENGERS, THUNDERBOLTS and elsewhere, even as I tried to do better on the character plotting.

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